ACS Week Without Walls...... Day 04

The Week Without Walls for the 8th grade of ACS was not just a learning experience through high end adventure activities. It is a program that provides learning from many different aspects. Today the kids had the opportunity to realize their responsibility towards mankind in a way they have not experienced before.

Preparations for the community service project conducted today started a while back in Beirut. An amount of $1,300 raised by the 8th grade was used to fund (donate) the Drinking Water Supply System of a local Sri Lankan School. The Hakbellawaka Kanishta Vidyalaya (H. Junior School) consists of 150 students and 20 teachers and is situated about 15 km away from the town of Kitulgala. Before, the school did not have a proper system to collect clean water from a little stream and use it for drinking. But with the generous contribution of the kids from ACS they managed to build a proper water supply system that enables the local children to drink clean water.

The days proceedings started off with the traditional offering of 'beetle' leaves and then a parade including a marching band taking the students into the school premises. The water fountain which was installed as a monument of the project was officially switched on by students from ACS. Traditional oil lamps were lit by representatives of both schools and Borderlands. The students were then treated to a traditional Sri Lankan dance, a welcome song and more. The 8th graders themselves got a chance to showcase their culture and talent by performing a dance and a song.

The rest of the day was dedicated to enhancing the interactions and friendship between the two groups of children. They got the chance to mix up among each other and paint murals on the school walls. Although the language barrier was strong the students did manage to communicate and interact with each other. It would be right to say every single student had a life changing time today bonding with the children from the local school. 

Back in camp after the day's program ended the students sat down and discussed the whole experience and  what they had learnt from it. It was evident that this experience opened the eyes of the children to see their responsibility towards human kind. 

ACS Week Without Walls...... Day 03

It was decided that today we're going to let the children them self tell the story about their day. So below is an account of day 3 of the week without walls with the help of Tamara and Jena.

The day started with the routine morning stretches to make sure that everyone is awake and fit for the day. The group was then divided in to two teams and set off for two different activities. One team was driven on trucks (a rather interesting drive!) to the base of a canyon and then hiked up to the beautiful 'Sandun ella waterfall'. The activity in store for them was abseiling (aka rappelling). So this is what Tamara and Jena had to say about it;

                "After a lecture (briefing) on how it was done, we watched in awe as the instructors (aka guides) disappear over the edge of the water fall. We were right to be excited about the 80 foot drop! It was incredible. Water rushed down on our faces and the rocks were very slippery but our faces contained an image of pure joy.

There were a few falls (they do not mean falling off the water fall) but everyone made it safely down. Few were terrified but eventually made it with encouragement from friends and instructors. It wasn't as frightening as it seemed to be"

Team number two in the mean time hiked through tea and rubber plantations and areas where the leech population was dense to visit a historic cave named as the 'Beli-lena Cave'. Both the teams met for a packed lunch and then switched over with the activities. This is what Jena and Tamara had to say about the trip to the cave;

    "The hike was full of two things. Leeches and exhaustion. Everyone returned to good spirits and began to play games and make jokes. We soon arrived to a cave dating from 9000 to 30000 years ago and after exploring we got to experience a shower pre-historic style"

After a long adventurous day the kids settled back in camp for a shower, dinner and bed. So ended another successful day at Borderlands Sri Lanka.

Stay tuned for Day 4 - Community Service Project.

ps - record for the day - 23 leeches! 

ACS Week Without Walls...... Day 02

What a better way to start a day off than with a bath in the river? And that is exactly what the 8th grade of ACS did on their second day at Borderlands Sri Lanka.

With the jet lag and the drowsiness washed away in the river and a good breakfast the students were given the opportunity to develop and learn about team work, leadership, trust and communication by the means of some games and activities.

The main highlight of the day for everyone surely was the canyoning! 

Jumping of rocky cliffs into pools, sliding down the water slides was an experience of a lifetime for the students. The canyon being "awesome" and "breathtaking" for some, was a moment out of their comfort zones for the others. The canyon as always proved to be a fine test for the brave hearted and a good opportunity for not so brave hearted to bring out the hidden courage inside them. Despite the thumping hearts, shaky legs and yes, even a few tears the students completed the canyon successfully !

                                                           Well done everyone...!!!!!!

ACS Week Without Walls...... Day 01

After much anticipation the excited 8th grade of ACS arrived at Borderlands Sri Lanka and started their adventure straight off. The short walk from the highway down to the Borderlands river base camp was turned into a much more tedious ordeal when the kids had to carry their own bags (suitcases to be more precise!)

After a quick yet thorough brief about camp and what to expect during their stay at Borderlands the kids had dinner and went off to bed. 

Although it took a while for the tents to be checked and rechecked for "humongous spiders" they seem to have settled down into their tents rather quickly.

With rain drops falling down (fortunately the tents have thatched roofs) hopefully the kids will have a good nights sleep and be ready for an adventure of a life time tomorrow.

A New Website in the Works

Borderlands has been in the process of designing a new website to reflect our growing operation and a desire to showcase all of our awesome activities. Our previous website was designed many years back, and we admit it — it could use improvement. Our new website will be cleaner, more modern, easier to read and navigate.

Creating a new website is not easy, as it requires us to gather our information and repackage it in a comprehensible and aesthetically pleasing manner. We're a group whose foremost passions are adventure sports, not the gritty details of designing a new wordpress site.

That's why Borderlands Sri Lanka has just contracted with two lovely Sri Lankan designers, Housni and Teesha, Housni will be doing the technical and back end work for the new website, creating our template. Teesha is in charge of the visual design and layout — making it look pretty. Teesha and Housni, besides being great people, have many years of experience in web design. We think their talents show in some of these following templates:

1. Design proposal for the new homepage.The main image will rotate, showcasing our activities from fafting and canyoning to whale watching and expeditions.

 2. Design proposal for an inner page. Our team building and schools pages will have a design similar to this one:

3. Another design proposal for an inner page. A template similar to this one will mostly be used for our adventure activities.

Bear in mind that these are just design concepts, and don't reflect any of the whiz-bang interactivity a new website entails, such as photo sliders, galleries and more. The final product will be polished. Still, we're impressed so far.

How does process of designing a website work? We at Borderlands meet with Teesha and Housni and give them sense of what we want in a design and what websites we think are good models. They come back to us and let us know what is feasible, what looks good, and what components in their experience makes a great website. Sometimes we give them a bit too much feedback, as we're have trouble on agreeing what we want! All in all, though, the new Borderlands will be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

You can expect Borderlands' new website to be operational by June 2013. So, take a look at some of our designs and let us know what your thoughts! We're always looking for feedback. What do you think?